I'm Melanie and I like to live vicariously through fictional characters. I enjoy reading and listening to mostly fictional books in the paranormal genre, including Urban Fantasy, Paranormal Romance and Horror. I will read contemporary romance on occasion, but not often. I will occasionally throw in a biography, usually autobiographies of people that I find interesting. Listening to autobiographies that are narrated by the author have been great in my experience.

My review and an extended sample of the audiobook are posted at Hotlistens.com.

I was excited to be back in the world of Frederick Frankfurt Fletcher, the Vampire Accountant. In this story (or collection of short stories), we actually see him more as the accountant. He is also becoming more of an action hero (even if it is still a different kind than we are used to seeing). He is less of the shy guy we saw in the first book.

An Accountant in the WarehouseFred has gotten certified as a “Certified Public Parahuman Accountant”. He is now your official guy to find you all of those paranormal tax deductions. His first client with his new credentials is king of the therians (were-creatures) in the area. We met Richard and his daughter Sally in the first book. There is also Gideon, who is a very old, very powerful dragon who likes to disguise as a playmate for Sally. When someone tries to kidnap Sally, and Fred since he was there, things go awry.

An Agent at the ConventionIn this story, Krystal, Fred and Bubba go to setup at the convention, which is the paranormal’s version of ComicCon. In this story, we meet Krystal’s ex-fiance’s sister is already setting up the booth. We learn more about mages, witches, therians and other creatures. When someone steals some of the weapons of destiny, the gang needs to hunt them down before the Con officially starts.

What I loved most in this story, was how they kept normal humans from finding out about this Con. Parahumans tried to keep the “veil of disbelief” about themselves.

“Red tape usually,” Krystal said. “Lost applications, extra fees piled on top of extra fees, constantly changing dates, and overall horrendous customer service. We make the experience so terrible, no one wants to come. Let alone, try again the next year.”“I think my cable company has been stealing plays from your book,” Bubba remarked as he set a fourth box on the pile.“Other way around. Every couple of years, we have someone set up a Castcom account, just to see if they’ve come up with any new tactics. They never fail to disappoint.” Krystal replied.

A Sword in the CatacombsI can’t say a huge about this story as it could spoil the previous story. I’ll just say that someone finds out that they are to become the new wielder of the Blade of the Unlikely Champion. The Agency has Krystal bring the gang in so that this new wielder could be tested and likely recruited to the Agency.

A Lawyer in the ManorWhen Fred is asked to come to a meeting at the Charlotte Manor, which is now a bed and breakfast, to basically interview for the job of accountant for investment firm. When the person from the investment firm starts talking about buying this B&B, the “employees” decide this is not want they want and take matters into their own hands. Fred solves this problem in a way that truly suits Fred.

A Dragon in the OfficeWhen Fred goes to “gala” at Richard’s home, Fred notices that Gideon is not what it seems. Fred goes on the hunt to try to figure out what is going on.

Once again, I really enjoyed this story. It is a light-hearted read with plenty of laugh out loud moments. If you’re looking for a paranormal read that is funny with some action and less romance, this is the story for you. The story format of several small stories that build on each other is different, but I find it works really well with this series.

Narration

Now when I listened to the first book, I mentioned that Kirby Heyborne didn’t do a very good job with female characters. I’m not 100% sure what changed, but I found that his narration with female voices didn’t bother me as much in this story. I think he is a great voice for Fred. He sounds exactly what I think Fred would sound like. He does a really good job of the big trucker and werebeast, Bubba.